100 elementary and middle shool teachers stopped by the Beef Council booth during open house at the Miss. Agriculture & Forestry Museum.Teachers were given information and lesson plans centered around nutrition and beef production.Educators are encouraged to contact the Mississippi Beef Council office for free teaching material.

Area Leaders Meeting - Wiggins7L Farms hosted last week's area meeting for county association leaders and Extension Agents in Wiggins. 7L is one of 15 Gold Buckle Farms sponsoring the fall membership drive.

Each Tuesday and Thursday during September, cattlemen may attend the free online educational sessions from their own home or office.Learn @ Lunch sessions provide practical knowledge for beef cattle producers of all types to enhance financial viability and improve farm management decision making.Click here for speakers and webinar details.

Policy

NCBA Tele-townhall Tomorrow

NCBA will host its quarterly tele-townhall meeting Wed., Sept. 19, at 7:45 p.m. This is an opportunity for NCBA members to hear updates about happenings inside the Beltway. NCBA members will receive a phone call from NCBA on Wednesday evening to participate in this meeting. It is very important that you are confident that we have your accurate contact information on file. If you have doubts about the telephone number on file, please call 1-866-BEEF-USA (1-866-233-3872) and ask to speak with the membership department. You can also e-mail Anita Graham at agraham@beef.org. During the call, members will hear from NCBA President J.D. Alexander; NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall; and NCBA Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Kristina Butts. Participants will be briefed on where we stand on NCBA's top five priority issues for 2012. Click here to learn more about the five priority issues. Participants will also be afforded the opportunity to ask questions about any issue.

USMEF on C2C

US Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng will appear on the upcoming edition of NCBA's Cattlemen to Cattlemen, where he discusses U.S. beef access in Japan with host Kevin Ochsner. The main focus of the segment is the proposal to increase the current 20-month cattle age limit on beef imports from the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands, which Japanese regulatory officials are now considering. Seng also discusses the positive reaction this proposal has received in Japan, including strong support from meat importers, retailers and restaurant chains. The program will air Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. on RFD-TV, which is carried on DIRECTV channel 345, DISH Network channel 231 and many local cable systems. It will be repeated Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 9:30 a.m. and Saturday, Sept. 22, at 8:00 a.m.

9.17.12

Market Notes

September 14, 2012

Dr. John Michael Riley

Cash Cattle:Fed cattle were called $2-$3/cwt higher this week and the regional five-area live and dressed price was up $4.11/cwt and $5.93/cwt, respectively. Cattle in the Southern Plains traded at $127/cwt on Thursday. In Nebraska live and dressed sales were respectively at $126-$128 and $195/cwt on Thursday as well. Western Cornbelt live cattle sold at $125/cwt and dressed were at $195/cwt. After a week off, steers - both feeders and calves - in Oklahoma City were steady to $2/cwt higher, while all heifers were steady with two weeks ago. Feeder steers in Mississippi auction this week were steady and feeder heifers were mixed. Cull cows and bulls were steady in Mississippi.

Futures:

Live cattle futures benefited from the higher cash market mid-week and saw prices move sharply higher. The week started with live futures sliding lower. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced a third round of bond buying in an attempt to stave off any drift back toward recession. That move pushed equity markets higher. This coupled with improved cash fed prices, lower corn prices and a weaker US dollar spurred cattle futures. The higher prices led some traders to 'take their marbles and go home' as the week ended in a sell-off.Corn futures were hit mid-week following the monthly USDA supply/demand report. The report came in higher than analysts had expected with per acre yield now being forecast at 122.8 bushels, compared to an expected 120.6 bu/ac and 2012 production at 10.727 billion bushels compared to a 10.403 pre-report expectation. Feed corn use was raised by 75,000 bushels and exports were lowered by 50,000 bushels, while all other use categories were unchanged, thus total use was raised by 25,000. The ahead of schedule corn crop did allow some early harvested acres in the southern U.S. to be counted toward last marketing year, which raised the carry-over into the current marketing year. The higher carry-in and higher than expected production left 2012/13 ending stocks at 733 million bushels, compared to an expected 618, and stocks versus use is currently projected at 6.5%. The report pushed futures prices lower, but there was some recovery as the week closed due to the boost in the general economy.

Beef:

Wholesale boxed beef prices were mixed this week as Choice beef improved and Select was lower. Despite the actual calculated changes, overall beef prices were mostly steady with last wek as Choice finished with a weekly average of $191.50/cwt, up $0.53. Select beef was $1.48/cwt lower than last week at $180.04.